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A Blueprint of A Dictionary of Production

Author: LiShuShen
Tutor: LuoShiPing
School: Xiamen University
Course: English Language and Literature
Keywords: dictionary production Chinese English
CLC: H316
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2001
Downloads: 51
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Abstract

This thesis proposes A Dictionary of Production (DOP for short) to help Chinese produce English. DOP is supposed to be an electronic dictionary. Compared with traditional dictionaries, its advantages are large content, automatic retrieval of lexical evidence, varied access methods and adaptation. DOP focuses on word finding function, that is to help the user find the word or phrase desired. DOP provides 7 access methods of word finding, each of which will be discussed in one chapter.This thesis is divided into 4 parts, excluding chapter 1 and a conclusion. Each part corresponds with a general concept of word findingPart I concentrates on word finding from a vague or common expression to an exact or variation of an expression. It consists of chapter 2, chapter 3 and chapter 4. Part II includes chapter 5 and chapter 6. It focuses on finding the English equivalents of Chinese words and phrases. Part III centers on finding a word by its collocation. It includes chapter 7 only. Part IV is on finding a word and a phrase by pictures. It includes chapter 8 only.Chapter 1 analyzes the importance of production in modern people's life and the reasons why it is becoming increasingly important with the globalization of economy. After looking into the shortcomings of the traditional dictionaries for production, it proposes to produce a comprehensive dictionary for production on the basis of electronic technology. Then the size, users and aim of DOP is decided.From chapter 2 to Chapter 8, this thesis will explore the functions of traditional dictionaries for production. After studying their coverage, arrangement of information and characteristics, it tries to present improved or revised editions, each of which will become a window of an electronic DOP.Chapter 2 is on the window of a thesaurus. This chapter gives a general introduction to the definition of a thesaurus, its characteristics, arrangement and history . Then functions of a thesaurus are analyzed from the point of production. Then a case study is done on the contrast between Webster's New World Thesaurus and Roget's Thesaurus to find out the proper form for the window of a thesaurus in an electronic DOP.Chapter 3 is on the window of a dictionary of synonyms, its history is traced with an aim of finding out how the definition and range of a synonym evolved throughout about two hundred years and how the dictionary of synonyms changed with theevolution of its basic concepts. On the basis of dissecting and sorting out these concepts and arrangements, the present writer wishes to break the restrictions on the coverage and treatment on a synonym in the modern dictionaries of synonyms and tries to find out what definition of and treatment of a synonym are most helpful for production. Then a sketch of a revised edition is proposed to be the window of a dictionary of synonyms in DOP.Chapter 4 is on the window of Longman Language Activator, which claims as \its innovations, such as taking spoken English and arranging the words according to its semantic meanings and situations. Situation-oriented word arrangement is especially worth mentioning, for with it the user can have quick access to the word desired. Then DOP will take LLA as the basis of its window of LLA. What's more, DOP will add more culture notes to give guidance to what they should say for some situations.Chapter 5 is on the window of A Reversed Chinese-English Dictionary. It points out a common shortcoming in CE dictionaries, that is the user often cannot find out the word for the meaning s / he wants to express in CE dictionaries. The problem lies in the fact that they do not contain Chinese free phrases as entries. To solve the problem, Lu Jiaqi proposed to reverse an EC dictionary. This chapter follows this design by providing a sample of a reversed CE dictionary. On this sample, the strengths and shortcomings of a reversed CE dictionary are pointed out and approaches for improvements are suggested.Chapte

A Blueprint of A Dictionary of Production

Abstract

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